Whtiney Fountain of Columbus set the state heptathlon record at the USATF Junior outdoor championships last weekend.Kendall Rodriguez

The part of the heptathlon Whitney Fountain most feared stood between her and a day of nothing but disappointment. The Christopher Columbus senior had shied away from competing in multi events before this season because she would have to run the 800 meters, a race she joked she always worried she wouldn’t be able to finish.

The 800 was the final event after a Day 2 long jump performance Fountain called “terrible” and a subpar javelin score, in an event she learned just prior to last weekend’s USATF Junior outdoor championships in Des Moines, Iowa. She had fallen from second to third, but salvaged the day by winning the race in a personal-best 2:17.39 to earn 859 points.

“I went into the 800 thinking I could win it, so I am going to try to win it,” Fountain said. “I don’t care how I do it. I don’t care if I fall. I am going to try to win and try to make it back.”

She still placed third overall, but the 800 points helped earn her the New York State heptathlon record with a score of 5197, breaking the old mark of f 4,953 set by Heidi Mann (Queensbury HS) 29 years ago. Fountain’s total was also the second best ever by an East Coast high-school athlete. She is behind just Ryann Krais’ (Methacton, Pa.) score of 5,522 set in 2008. Fountain, who will run at Clemson next season, also set the state pentathlon record this season with a 3,783.

“I was just going into it trying to do my best at everything,” she said. “My mom [Kiya] was like, ‘Well third is really good and you do have the state record.’ I was happy. It made me feel really good. It made me proud of my overall performance.”

Alex Gochenour of Logan-Magnolia HS in Iowa won the event with a score of 5300. Fountain set PRs in the 100 hurdlers with a time of 14.27 and in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 8.75 inches. She had a shot put toss of 29-1.75 and won the 200, one of her signature events, with a time of 24.26 to put her in second after the first day.

Coming back, she jumped just 17-07 in the long jump. Her outdoor season best was 19-4.25 and she knew her worst event, the javelin, where she threw 91-08, was up next.

Fountain literally taught herself how to throw the javelin in the weeks leading up to championships. It was first unclear if she was going to be allowed to compete, since she had not completed a heptathlon before, but her coach and mom were persistent in making sure she got in. Fountain only trained for the unfamiliar events like the shot put and ran the 800 once.

“I didn’t know anything about the javelin,” she said. “I didn’t know how to hold it, the approach — nothing. I had to learn from scratch from like a book.”

That is what Fountain is hitting right now. She left for Clemson last Sunday, right after her graduation, to start a summer academic program. Looking back, her level of success with such little training leaves Fountain wondering what could have been if she had competed in multi-events.

“I really did think about that,” Fountain said. “I found it truly amazing that I did so well with minimum practice. I just thought to myself, ‘Damn, I should have never been afraid of that 800.’”